Media

Rob's media library…

A searchable library of posts to give you context for today…

Search tools are below the articles.Items from your search will appear here.

Published on Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Council exploring protection on Glen Abbey

Mayor cautions against 'foregone conclusions'

Glen Abbey golf course

Metroland Media

By Nathan Howes, Oakville Beaver

While Oakville residents applauded Council Monday night for giving the Glen Abbey property at 1333 Dorval Dr. the green light for potential heritage protection measures, Mayor Rob Burton cautioned there is more work to be done.

At Monday’s Planning and Development meeting, Council approved a recommendation to make the Glen Abbey lands a priority property for Phase 3 of the Cultural Heritage Landscape Strategy.

That strategy identified several properties, with significant cultural landscapes and natural heritages, as a priority to protect and preserve their historical features.

Phase 1 of the strategy completed an inventory of public- and privately-owned properties in Oakville that have potential to be a cultural heritage landscape.

Despite the Glen Abbey property being made a priority for possible protection measures, Burton said there is still a lot of work “yet to be done.”

“There are no foregone conclusions available from this decision. It means we are moving forward to look at what would be the appropriate measures to protect the cultural heritage landscape values we’ve seen in these reports,” he said.

“This Council has been very good about being very dedicated to keeping an open mind to the end, and open to and considering, all evidence brought before it.”

Town staff noted Phase 3 should be complete by the end of 2017. The recommended measures for the 1333 Dorval Dr. property will be back to Council in late summer or early fall.

Given many residents may be away in summer, public consultation and meetings will be targeted for June or early September.

Exact dates have yet to be set.

Mark R. Flowers of Davies Howe Partners LLP, who represented ClubLink during its two hearings to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) — appealing the Town’s decision to deem its application incomplete and the interim control bylaw – spoke on its behalf at the April 25 Heritage Oakville Advisory Committee meeting, and again Monday, requesting Council to defer consideration of the Phase 2 report until it has time to provide “meaningful input.”

ClubLink filed a letter with the Town Monday to request additional time and further meetings with ClubLink and ERA Architects.

“As noted in our letter, Town staff has still not fully responded to information requests that were made by ClubLink,” Flowers charged.

After arguing back-and-forth with Flowers for several minutes, Burton invited ClubLink to “participate fully” in Phase 3.

Council also gave the OK to address the remaining medium- (16) and low-priority (27) properties from Phase 1 in the annual Heritage Planning Work Plan in 2018.

Council’s approval comes hot on the heels of the OMB decision last week to side with the Town of Oakville for enacting an interim control bylaw on the Glen Abbey golf course property.